Huron students working with TVDSB Safe Schools

February 2, 2017

A Huron Psychology seminar class is giving upper-year students the chance to make a tangible difference in the lives of local school-age children and adolescents.

Dr. Tara Dumas's Adolescent Risk Behaviours class, working with Huron's Coordinator, Research and Learning Support, will be completing a community-based learning project with the Thames Valley District School Board Safe Schools team (http://www.tvdsb.ca/safeSchools.cfm?subpage=218). The Huron students’ task will be to evaluate the literature and research established programs to judge which program(s) would be most effective for a specific group of students and behaviours here in London.

"This project will allow students the opportunity to apply the strong research skills they develop in the Huron Psychology program to help tackle a major health-related concern for young people in our community: cyber-aggression and victimization. It will also help students build important skills in knowledge translation and the development of evidence-based intervention programming," says Dr. Dumas.

The Safe Schools department works to create a safe, caring, positive learning environment for all schools, and all students in Kindergarten to Grade 12. The students in Dr Dumas’s psychology class have been asked to develop an effective strategy to combat cyber violence/ bullying using a positive behaviour intervention. Teachers and students indicate that bullying happens most often through electronic devices, and face-to-face schoolyard bullying/violence is much less of a problem than it once was.

In light of this shifting behaviour, Huron students will have the rare opportunity to help shape policy in the Thames Valley District School Bard, showing that liberal arts provides a meaningful foundation for social change. It's Leadership with Heart, beyond the classroom.